Yes, The Pirate Bay was sold, will cease to exist as you know it (but will still exist)

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My initial reaction to the news that some company called Global Gaming Factory X has agreed to buy The Pirate Bay was, “Pfft, why should I care? The was only garbage on there anyway.” And while that’s still my opinion—there really was only garbage on there—we really ought to recognize that, for better or worse, The Pirate Bay was something of a symbol for the greater “music/movies/whatever wants to be free” “movement,” if you can even call it that.

The site was sold for 60m Swedish Crowns (around $7.7ish million at the moment), and this new group will take over in August. Says the CEO of Global Gaming Factory X:

We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site.The Pirate Bay is a site that is among the top 100 most visited Internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary.

If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That’s the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to. And – you can now not only share files but shares with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That’s awesome and will take the heat of us.

I cannot tell you the douche chills that the phrase “you can now not only share files but shares with people” gave me.

I don’t know, I’m all over the place here. It’s entirely too early to be making any bold, Techmeme-friendly predictions right now. It’s not the time for “WHAT THIS MEANS FOR PIRACY” or “RIAA 1, TPB 0” rubbish that you’re certain to read elsewhere.